Cengage Advantage Books: Fundamentals of Business Law 9th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 7

Proximate Cause. Sixteen-year-old Galen Stoller was killed at a railroad crossing when an AMTRAK passenger train hit the vehicle he was driving on a county road in Rowe, New Mexico. His parents, Maida Henderson and Ken Stoller, filed a lawsuit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Corp. (BNSF), among others. The parents accused the railroad of negligence in the design and maintenance of the crossing. Specifically, they claimed that the railroad had failed to (1) clear excessive vegetation from the crossing area and (2) install active warning devices (such as flashing lights, bells, or gates to warn of approaching trains). The crossing was marked with a stop sign and a railroad-crossing symbol. Submitted photos revealed that the sign was unobstructed. Although it was clear that Galen's car was on the tracks when the train collided with the vehicle, the parties disputed whether Galen had stopped at the stop sign. New Mexico law requires "a traveler approaching an open, unguarded railroad crossing... to stop, look and listen for trains using the tracks." Under state law, a driver's failure to "stop, look and listen" will be deemed the sole proximate cause of the collision, unless sufficient evidence exists from which a jury could conclude that the railroad was also negligent. The district court granted a summary judgment in favor of the railroad, and the plaintiffs appealed. Was there sufficient evidence that the railroad was negligent? How should the appellate court rule concerning the proximate cause of the accident? Explain. [ Henderson v. National Railroad Passenger Corp. , __ F.3d __ (10th Cir. 2011)]